Grit

Grit (pronounced grit)

(1) Abrasive particles or granules, as of sand or other small, coarse impurities found in the air, food, water etc.

(2) Firmness of character; indomitable spirit; pluck.

(3) A coarse-grained siliceous rock, usually with sharp, angular grains.

(4) To cause to grind or grate together.

(5) To make a scratchy or slightly grating sound, as of sand being walked on; grate.

Pre-1000; From the Middle English gret, griet and grit, from the Old English grēot (sand, dust, earth, gravel), cognate with the German Griess and the Old Norse grjōt (pebble, boulder), the Germanic forms all derived from the Old High German grioz.  The Proto-Germanic was greutan (tiny particles of crushed rock) which was the root for the Old Saxon griot, the Old Frisian gret, the Old Norse grjot (rock, stone) and the German Grieß (grit, sand).  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European ghreu (rub, grind), a fork of which begat the Lithuanian grudas (corn, kernel), the Old Church Slavonic gruda (clod) and the Serbo-Croatian grȕda (lump).  An interesting variation is the specifically wintertime use as the Lithuanian grúodas (frost; frozen street dirt).  The sense of an indomitable spirit, a display of pluck, spirit, firmness of mind, was first recorded in American English in 1808 and the meaning “make a grating sound" is attested from 1762.  The change in pronunciation happened during the era of Middle English when grete & griet were subject to the early modern vowel shortening to become grit.  Grit is a noun & verb, gritted is a verb & adjective, gritting is a verb & noun, gritter is a noun and gritty is an adjective; the noun plural is grits (although "grittings" is (in this context) in wider use).

In culinary use “grits” is used to describe a type of porridge made from coarsely ground dried maize or hominy (the latter a maize which has been nixtamalized (a process in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution (usually limewater) and hulled with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed.  The dish is most associated with the US, south of the Mason-Dixon Line and traditionally was cooked in warm salted water or milk, often served with flavourings as a breakfast dish; grits can be savory or sweet.  Grits was from the Old English grytt (coarse meal). Grits (in this sense of coarsely ground corn), occasionally takes a singular verb, especially in the southern US.

Through gritted teeth

ESL (English as a second language) teachers report the phrase “through gritted teeth” is one of those most readily understood by those new to the language; it seems a universal concept.  Although it can be used in the literal sense to mean “clench one's teeth together tightly because of pain”, it’s more common in the idiomatic to mean “to confront a difficult or disagreeable situation and deal with one’s negative feelings by adopting a superficial display of acceptance”.  Best explained by the companion phrase “grin and bear it”, the essential nuance is it carries the implication of a passive display of disapproval while not overtly raising objection, honor thus satisfied on both sides.

Tony Abbott (b 1957; Prime Minister of Australian 2013-2015), celebrating the marriage of his sister, Christine Forster to wife Virginia Flitcroft, Sydney, February 2018.  This photograph encapsulates the concept of "confronting a difficult or disagreeable situation and deal with one’s negative feelings by adopting a superficial display of acceptance".

A gritter truck, spreading grit.

Gritter trucks are a type of winter service vehicle (WSV) used in areas where sustained conditions of sub-zero temperatures cause icy roads.  Usually called "gritters", they're known also as "salters", "salt spreaders" or "salt shakers" and are used to spread grit (usually rock salt, sometimes mixed with sand) onto roads.  The salt lowers the melting point of ice and the sand improves traction, the resulting liquid water flowing to the road's edge by virtue of the slight slopes from the centre-line engineers include as a part of roadway design.  In earlier times when prevention techniques were less comprehensive, cars in areas where salt was widely used sometimes needed to be scrapped in as little as 2-3 years, such was the extent of their rust.  Even now, cars in such places have a notably shorter life.  The Scots seem to be most imaginative in name their “gritters” and those noted spreading grit include Gritallica; Ready, Spready, Go!; Sled Zepplin; For Your Ice Only; Gritt Scott!; Frosty the Snow Plough; Grit and BEAR It; Mr Snow-it-all; Mrs McGritter; Salt Shaker; Salty Claus; Gritty Gritty Bang Bang; Get a Grit; Thistle do nicely; Blizzard Wizard; Hagrit; Salty; Grit A Bit; I Want to Break Freeze; Mega Melter; Always Be Grit-full; Scotland’s Bravest Gritter; Basil Salty; Licence to Chill; Sir Salter Scott; Nitty Gritty; Grit-Tok; BFG (Big Friendly Gritter); Snow place like home; Gritty McGrit Face; Griticle Mass; I’ve Grit a Crush on you; Don’t go Grittin’ my heart; Thistle gets through; Oh my Gritty Aunt and Taylor Drift.

Harford Lower Extremity Specialists (HLES) illustrating things with a gritty foot.

Convocation

Convocation (pronounced kon-vuh-key-shuhn)

(1) The act of convoking.

(2) The state of being convoked.

(3) A group of people gathered in answer to a summons; an assembly.

(4) In the Church of England, either of the synods of the provinces of Canterbury or York.

(5) In the Protestant Episcopal Church, an assembly of the clergy and part of the laity of a diocese.

(6) The area represented at such an assembly.

(7) A formal assembly at a college or university, especially for a graduation ceremony.

(8) In universities, a term used generally to describe the group (of the institution’s graduates and others) entitled to elect governing bodies such as their senate.

(9) In Indian institutions of learning, a degree-awarding ceremony.

(10) The collective noun for eagles.

(11) In historic Freemasonry, a meeting of companions of a Holy Royal Arch chapter of the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.

1350–1400: From the Middle English convocacio(u)n (assembly of persons) from the Middle French convocation from the Latin convocātiōn (stem of convocātiō).  Old French picked up convocation directly from the Latin convocationem (nominative convocatio), noun of action from past participle stem of convocare (to call together), the construct being com (together) + vocare (to call).  Vocare was derived from vox (voice).  The form exists in many modern European languages; as well as the English and French convocation, there’s convocació in Catalan, convocazione in Italian, convocação in Portuguese and convocación in Spanish.  Convocation and convoker are nouns and convoked & convoking are verbs; the common noun plural is convocations.

The Holy Royal Arch

A Masonic faction, within Freemasonry the Holy Royal Arch is described as a degree.  The origins of Royal Arch Masonry and the Holy Royal Arch are murky and it’s known only that it dates back to the mid eighteenth century although fragments of Royal Arch rituals exist in Masonic literature from the 1720s.  The first historically verified appearance of was in 1743 when a “Royal Arch” was carried in a Dublin by “two excellent Masons”.  The appearance of the arch provoked controversy and attracted the disapprobation of Dr Dassigny in his critique “A serious and impartial enquiry into the cause of the present decay of Free-masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland” (1744).

Royal Arch Masonry was the subject of a long factional battle within Freemasonry and by 1751 the factions had coalesced into two, the older body paradoxically known as the Moderns, the newer the Antients (an even then archaic spelling of ancient).  Their disputes became increasingly circular and by 1813, Antients and Moderns agreed on an act of union and formed the United Grand Lodge of England.  The compromise became possible by the creation of a protocol under which the union would recognise the Royal Arch (to placate the Antients) but create it as a separate order (to appease the Moderns).

The recognition can be seen as a pyrrhic victory for the Antients.  By 1817, the faction had faded away and, although never formerly dissolved, the membership was soon absorbed into what had previously been the grand chapter of the Moderns with all forming as a group when members attend a grand chapter convocation.  The Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or has never denied being a faction of the Freemasons.

Sinew

Sinew (pronounced sin-you)

(1) In anatomy, the classical name for a tendon.

(2) Figuratively, that which gives strength or in which strength consists; a supporting factor or member; mainstay the source or an expression of strength, power or vigor (usually as in the plural).

(3) In literature, an alternative name for muscle.

(4) A string or chord, as of a musical instrument (now rare except poetically).

Pre 900: From the Middle English sinu, from the Old English seonowe, an oblique form of the nominative sionu (sinew) from the Proto-Germanic senawo.  It’s the root also of the Old Saxon sinewa. the Old Norse sina, the Old Frisian sine, the Middle Dutch senuwe, the Dutch zenuw, the Old High German senawa and the German sehne.  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European sai- (to tie, bind), source also of the Sanskrit snavah (sinew) and syati & sinati (to bind), the Avestan snavar and the Irish sin (chain); related was the Hittite ishai- & ishi- (to bind).  By the late fourteenth century, sinewy meant “made of sinews, and by 1570 the sense had extended to "tough and stringy.  Sinew is a noun and verb and sinewy, sinewed & sinewous are adjectives; the noun plural is sinews.

Lindsay Lohan Boxer by solidwheel02 on Deviantart, a little artistic licence taken with the sinews.  Still, either way, she looks good.

Cenotaph

Cenotaph (pronounced sen-uh-taf or sen-uh-tahf)

A sepulchral monument in memory of and honoring a dead person or persons buried elsewhere; erected especially as military monuments.

1595–1605: From the French cénotaphe (empty tomb erected in honor of a dead person who is buried elsewhere or whose body is lost), from the Classical Latin cenotaphium from the Ancient Greek kenotáphion, the construct being κενός (kenós) (empty) + τάφος (táphos) (tomb) + -ion (the diminutive suffix) of uncertain origin.  Until well into the twentieth century it was thought ultimately derived (like the Armenian damban (tomb)) from the primitive Indo-European root dhembh- (to dig, bury) the the evidence is scant and some etymologists suspect both the Armenian and Greek could well be borrowings from other places.  Cenotaph is a noun and cenotaphic is an adjective; the noun plural is cenotaphs.

The Cenotaph to Reynold's Memory, Coleorton (circa 1833), oil on canvas by John Constable (1776-1837).

Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822), The Cloud (1820)

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.
 
I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,
While I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,
Lightning my pilot sits;
In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls at fits;
Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,
This pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;
Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,
The Spirit he loves remains;
And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.
 
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead;
As on the jag of a mountain crag,
Which an earthquake rocks and swings,
An eagle alit one moment may sit
In the light of its golden wings.
And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,
Its ardours of rest and of love,
And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From the depth of Heaven above,
With wings folded I rest, on mine aëry nest,
As still as a brooding dove.
 
That orbèd maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the Moon,
Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till calm the rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.
 
I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone,
And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.
From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a torrent sea,
Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,
The mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march
With hurricane, fire, and snow,
When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,
Is the million-coloured bow;
The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,
While the moist Earth was laughing below.
 
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.

Arachibutyrophobe

Arachibutyrophobe (pronounced a-ra-chi-bu-tyr-o-pho-be)

One who suffers from the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth.

1977: A compound word, the construct being the Latin arachis (peanut) + butyrum (butter) +‎ -phobe (fear of).  The –phobe suffix was a combining form used to form personal nouns corresponding to nouns.  It was from the French phobe, from the Latin –phobus (fear; panic), from the Attic Greek -φόβος (-phóbos), combining form of φόβος (phóbos), ablaut variant of φέβεσθαι (phébesthai), middle infinitive of φέβομαι (phébomai), from the primitive Indo-European bhegw.  Cognates included the Slovak bežať (run), the Polish biec (run), the Lithuanian bėgti (run), the Albanian dëboj (throw out, drive away, expel, banish).  The related German form is -phob.  The –phobe suffix can cause confusion because it can mean, depending on context, either “fear of” or “hatred of” and is often used in a political context; an Anglophobe being one with a dislike of the English while an Anglophile is an admirer.  The –phile suffix is from the Latin -phila, from Ancient Greek φίλος (phílos) (dear, beloved).

Phobias

Phobias need not be widely diagnosed conditions; they need only be specific and, even if suffered by just one soul in the world, the criteria are fulfilled.  In this sense, phobias are analogous with syndromes.  A phobia is an anxiety disorder, an unreasonable or irrational fear related to exposure to certain objects or situations.  The phobia may be triggered either by the cause or an anticipation of the specific object or situation.

Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap (1998) introduced the culinary novelty of peanut butter spread on Oreos; an allure appalled arachibutyrophobes avoid.

The fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)) made some interesting definitional changes from the earlier DSM-4 (1994):  (1) A patient no longer needs to acknowledge their anxiety is excessive or unreasonable in order to receive a diagnoses, it being required only that their anxiety must be “out of proportion” to the actual threat or danger (in its socio-cultural context).  (2) Symptoms must now, regardless of age, last at least six months.  (3) The diagnostic criteria for social phobias no longer specify that age at onset must be before eighteen, a change apparently necessitated by the substantial increase in reporting by older adults with the DSM editors noting the six-month duration threshold exists to minimize the over-diagnosis of transient fears.

Whether it was already something widely practiced isn’t known but Lindsay Lohan is credited with introducing to the world the culinary novelty Oreos & peanut butter in The Parent Trap.  According to the director, it was added to the script “…for no reason other than it sounded weird and some cute kid would do it."  Like some other weirdnesses, the combination has a cult following and for those who enjoy peanut butter but suffer arachibutyrophobia (the morbid fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth), Tastemade have provided a recipe for Lindsay Lohan-style Oreos with a preparation time (including whisking) of 2 hours.  They take 20 minutes to cook and in this mix there are 8 servings (scale ingredients up to increase the number of servings).

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus more for dusting)
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Filling Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup unsweetened smooth peanut butter
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A pinch of kosher salt (omit if using salted peanut butter)

Filling Instructions

(1) With a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, the butter & peanut butter until creamy.

(2) Gradually add powdered sugar and beat to combine, then beat in vanilla and salt.

Whisking the mix.

Instructions

(1) Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

(2) In small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder & salt.

(3) In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in the vanilla extract. With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour mixture and beat until just combined (it should remain somewhat crumbly).

(4) Pour mixture onto a work surface and knead until it’s “all together”; wrap half in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.

(5) Lightly dust surface and the top of the dough with a 1:1 mixture of cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

(6) Working swiftly and carefully, roll out dough to a ¼-½ inch (6-12 mm) thickness and cut out 2 inch (50 mm) rounds.  Transfer them to the baking sheets, 1 inch (25 mm) apart (using a small offset spatula helps with this step). Re-roll scraps and cut out more rounds, the repeat with remaining half of the dough.

(7) Bake cookies until the tops are no longer shiny ( about 20 minutes), then cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack completely to cool.

(8) To assemble, place half the cookies on a plate or work surface.

(9) Pipe a blob of filling (about 2 teaspoons) onto the tops of each of these cookies and then place another cookie on top, pressing slightly but not to the extent filled oozes from the sides.

(10) Refrigerate for a few minutes to allow the filling to firm up.  Store in an air-tight container in refrigerator.

The manufacturer embraced the idea of peanut butter Oreos and has released versions, both with the classic cookie and a peanut butter & jelly (jam) variation paired with its “golden wafers”.  As well as Lindsay Lohan’s contribution, Oreos have attracted the interest of mathematicians.  Nabisco in 1974 introduced the Double Stuf Oreo, the clear implication being a promise the variety contained twice crème filling supplied in the original.  However, a mathematician undertook the research and determined Double Stuf Oreos contained only 1.86 times the volume of filling of a standard Oreo.  Despite that, the company survived the scandal and the Double Stuf Oreo’s recipe wasn’t adjusted.

Scandalous in its own way was that an April 2022 research paper published in the journal Physics of Fluids wasn’t awarded that year’s Ig Nobel Prize for physics, the honor taken by Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji & Atilla Incecik, for their admittedly ground-breaking (or perhaps water-breaking) work in explaining how ducklings manage to swim in formation.  More deserving surely were Crystal Owens, Max Fan, John Hart & Gareth McKinley who introduced to physics the discipline of Oreology (the construct being Oreo + (o)logy).  The suffix -ology was formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).  Oreology is the study of the flow and fracture of sandwich cookies and the research proved it is impossible to split the cream filling of an Oreo cookie down the middle.

An Oreo on a rheometer.

The core finding in Oreology was that the filling always adheres to one side of the wafer, no matter how quickly one or both cookies are twisted.  Using a rheometer (a laboratory instrument used to measure the way in which a viscous fluid (a liquid, suspension or slurry) flows in response to applied forces), it was determined creme distribution upon cookie separation by torsional rotation is not a function of rate of rotation, creme filling height level, or flavor, but was mostly determined by the pre-existing level of adhesion between the creme and each wafer.  The research also noted that were there changes to the composition of the filling (such as the inclusion of peanut butter) would influence the change from adhesive to cohesive failure and presumably the specifics of the peanut butter chosen (smooth, crunchy, extra-crunchy, un-salted (although the organic varieties should behave in a similar way to their mass-market equivalents)) would have some effect because the fluid dynamics would change.  The expected extent of the change would be appear to be slight but until further research is performed, this can’t be confirmed.  The 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will (as a webcast) happen on Thursday 14 September 2023, at 18:00 pm (US eastern time).     

Athwart

Athwart (pronounced uh-thwawrt)

(1) From side to side; crosswise, transversely.

(2) In admiralty use, at right angles to the fore-and-aft line; across.

(3) Perversely; awry; wrongly.

1425-1475: From the Late Middle English athwert & athirt and a proclitic form of preposition; the construct was a- (in the sense of "in the direction of, toward")  + thwart.  The a prefix was from the Old English an (on) which in Middle English meant “up, out, away”, both derived from the Proto-Germanic uz (out), from the primitive Indo-European uds (up, out); cognate with the Old Saxon ā which endures in Modern German as the prefix er.  Thwart was from the Middle English adverb & adjective thwert, (crosswise; (cooking) across the grain, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate, stubborn), a borrowing from Old Norse þvert (across, transverse), originally the neuter form of þverr (transverse, across), from the Proto-Germanic þwerhaz, altered or influenced by þweraną (to turn) and þerh, from the primitive Indo-European twork & twerk (to twist).  Cognates include the Old English þweorh (transverse, perverse, angry, cross), the Danish tvær, the Gothic þwaírs (angry), the West Frisian dwers (beyond, across, to the other side of), the Dutch dwars (cross-grained, contrary), the Low German dwars (cross-grained, contrary) and the German quer (crosswise; cross).  The modern English queer is related.  Although still used by poets good and bad, the word is probably otherwise obsolete for all purposes except historic admiralty documents.  Athwart is a noun & adverb, athwartship is an adjective & adverb and athwartships & athwartwise are adverb; the noun plural is athwarts.  Forms like athwartly are definitely non standard.

In nautical design, the term “athwart” is used to describe a direction or orientation that is perpendicular to the centreline of a ship or boat (ie that which runs across the vessel from side to side (port-to-starboard) at right angles to the fore-and-aft line.  In shipbuilding this can apply to various components and actions on a ship, such as beams, futtocks, bulkheads, or even the positioning of objects; as a general principle something can be said to be “athwart” if it sits perpendicular to the centreline but the term is most often applied to objects which span or crosses the vessel’s entire width.  In naval architecture specifically, athwart was used as a noun to refer to the cross-members which sat beneath the deck-mounted gun-turrets on warships.  Although they had long been a part of the supporting structures, the term “athwart” seems first to have been used on the blueprints of HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906 and a design thought so revolutionary it lent its name to the class of the biggest battleships, previous such vessels immediately re-classified as “pre-dreadnoughts” and, when even bigger ships were launched, they were dubbed “super-dreadnoughts”.

Lindsay Lohan with former special friend Samantha Roinson, athwart, TV Guide's sixth annual Emmy after party, The Kress, September 2008, Hollywood, California.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Kubla Khan (1798)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced;
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves:
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight't would win me
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Admiralty

Admiralty (pronounced ad-mer-uhl-tee)

(1) In military use, the office or jurisdiction of an admiral.

(2) In military use, the officials or the department of state having charge of naval affairs (not all of whom needed to be admirals); it was analogous with an army's general staff and an air force's air staff.

(3) In the UK, the building in which the lords of the admiralty, in England, transact business.

(4) In law, the branch dealing with maritime law; a court dealing with maritime questions (In England, when jurisdiction was under the division of Divorce, Probate & Admiralty, the lawyers' slang was “wives, wills & wrecks”); the system of jurisprudence of admiralty courts.

(5) In (historic) architecture, a frequent descriptor (Admiralty House, Admiralty Arch etc).

1300–1350: A compound word Admiral + -ty, from the Middle English amiralty, from the French amirauté, from the older form amiralté (office of admiral), from the Late Latin admīrālitās.  The best known sense, “naval branch of the English executive" dates from the early-fifteenth century, root of the word being admiral.  Admiral emerged circa 1200 as amiral & admirail (Saracen commander or chieftain) from the Old French amiral & amirail (Saracen military commander; any military commander) ultimately from medieval Arabic amīr (military commander) probably via the Medieval Latin use of the word for "Muslim military leader".  The suffix –ty is from the Middle English -te, borrowed from the Old French -te, from the Latin -tātem, accusative masculine singular of –tās; an alternative form of –ity, it was used to form abstract nouns from adjectives.  The first English admiral to appear in the records appears to have been Admiral of the Fleet of the Cinque Ports, Gerard Allard of Winchelsea, a royal appointment in 1300.  The Arabic amīr was later Englished as emir.  In another example of Medieval error, because in Arabic use, amīr is constantly followed by -al- in all such titles, amīr-al- was assumed by Christian writers to be a substantive word and variously Latinized.  The process thus was a shortening of the Arabic أَمِير اَلبَحْر‎ (ʾamīr al-baḥr) (commander of the fleet; literally “sea commander”) and the additional -d- is probably from the influence of the otherwise unconnected Latin admirable (admīrābilis).  For those stalkers who take selfies at locations used in movies (Instagram made this niche), the The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey (listed as the only waterside hotel in Los Angeles with a Five Diamond rating from the AAA) is at 4375 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey.  It has appeared in a number of productions (film & television), notably Lindsay Lohan's remake of The Parent Trap (1998).  Admiralty & admiral are nouns; the noun plural is plural admiralties.  When used as a proper noun (thus the initial upper case), in Royal Navy use, Admiralty referred (1) the historical naval bases established in the Far East: (1) HMS Tamar (Hong Kong) and (2) HMS Sembawang (Singapore).

Admiralty Arch, London.

An island rather than a continental power and later an empire, for England, the navy assumed an importance in foreign policy standing armies never did and the Royal Navy’s high command, the Admiralty, was for centuries entangled in both military and political matters.  The Admiralty no longer exists, absorbed in 1964, like the high commands of the other services, into the newly created Ministry of Defence.  Over the centuries, the structure of the Admiralty evolved as technology changed, threats and alliances came and went, budgets waxed and waned, political vicissitudes always hovering.  As a bureaucracy, the Admiralty has been staffed by a bewildering array of offices and titles including board members, presidents, sea lords, secretaries, civil lords, controllers, comptrollers, accountants-general, directors-general, storekeepers-general, surveyors, deputy chiefs, vice chiefs & assistant chiefs but in its final incarnation, under a First Lord of the Admiralty (a minister for the navy who sat in parliament and was thus political head of the navy) there were five admirals, known as the sea lords (of which there were eight lords during World War II; things were busy then).  The sea lords each enjoyed a sphere of responsibility for naval operations:

The First Sea Lord (later First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff), directed naval strategy in wartime and was responsible for planning, operations and intelligence, for the distribution of the Fleet and for its fighting efficiency.  He was the military head of the Navy.

The Second Sea Lord (later Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel), was responsible for manning & mobilisation and all personnel questions relating to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

The Third Sea Lord (later the Controller of the Navy) was responsible primarily for ship design and construction and most material matters including the Fleet Air Arm.

The Fourth Sea Lord (later Chief of Naval Supplies) was responsible for logistics, victualling and medical departments.

The Fifth Sea Lord (later the Chief of Naval Air Services) was responsible for all naval aviation.